Lecture 44: Renoir, Pissarro, and Cézanne

Renoir, Pissarro, and Cézanne.......................................................

Lecture 44

Among the characteristics that are today associated with Impressionist

painting are the use of a pale grey or even a white ground applied to the

canvas, rather than a dark one.

I

n this lecture, we continue with the Impressionists, noting the hallmarks

of that style but keeping in mind that the Impressionist artists did not

necessarily follow all these “rules” at all times. As we examine the work

of Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Cézanne in detail, we will

underscore the importance of approaching each artist and, indeed, each work

of art individually.

Among the characteristics associated with Impressionist painting are:

• The use of a pale grey or even a white ground applied to the canvas,
  rather than a dark one. Manet had already done this, and the effect is to
  increase the intensity of brightness, of light, in the ¿ nal painting.


• The use of color, blues and violets, for example, for shadows, because
  the artists had observed that shadow is not black.


• The application of small strokes of complementary colors, not mixed
  on the palette but side by side on the canvas, which the eye blends
  optically.


• The À ickering quality of light that results from this application.


• The delight in painting sky and water and the sky reÀ ected in water.


• A sense of impermanent, volatile À ux, of the dissolution of distinctly
  contoured form.